Birmingham City Council again says 'not yet' to bond approval, millions in spending

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- The Birmingham City Council today again shelved approval of $73 million in capital bonds and advancing $9 million to begin street paving, sending both items to a committee for further discussion.

Mayor William Bell's administration, like last week, pressed for approval, saying the vote would simply begin the bond financing process and spending details could be refined later.

"In order to go to the market we have to have the items settled," said Finance Director Tom Barnett. "The project list would be a separate document. We have to agree on the amounts for the categories in order to sell the bonds."

Virginia Williams, Bell's senior aide in charge of capital projects, said approval of the bonds today would have maintained the schedule to begin actual work in March.

"This ordinance allows us to go forward to meet the schedule to sell the bonds in March," Williams told the council. "Until we get the money we cannot start the projects."

Hoyt said the council remains in favor of the bond spending, including the neighborhood street paving, but wants assurances before approving the measures.

"It really warrants us sitting down collectively and having some dialog. We need to be very clear," Hoyt said in an interview later. "I held town hall meetings to talk about streets that were of concern in my district. Some of those were on the list and some were not."

The delays and calls for more discussion aren't moves against the projects, but rather efforts to ensure the spending is fair and with the right priorities.

"We all know that after you vote, it may or may not happen. We don't have a lot of evidence of 'Kumbaya' so it's hard to trust folk that you can't depend on," Hoyt said in an interview with Al.com/The Birmingham News. "So I just think there needs to be a discussion and we need to look at how much money is going into each one of those districts too."

Councilwoman Lashunda Scales called today's delays another call for one-on-one discussion with Bell, something he had also promised.

"My desire is to work with the mayor," she said from the dais. "But we can't keep doing this at an arms-length approach."

Councilwoman Kim Rafferty countered, calling today's action an irresponsible delay that had nothing to do with debate over specific projects. Rafferty agreed more discussion should occur over projects, but that was not the subject of today's proposal.

"At this point in time, we need to move forward with the sale of the bonds," Rafferty said. "Officially the council killed the bond deal, even though the people voted favorably in a bond referendum."

In addition, the council next week will discuss a proposal from Councilwoman Maxine Parker, who has her own $10 million list of park improvements. Parker is chairwoman of the city's Park and Recreation board, and spending priorities were endorsed by that board.

That amount is significantly more than the $2.6 million Bell listed for park spending in this first phase of the bond initiative.